Vox AC30

The defining textural guitar tone of the 1980s. The Edge's approach on Where the Streets Have No Name is built on rhythmic delay: a dotted eighth note delay synchronized to the tempo creates a cascading, shimmering pattern where the delayed notes fill in the gaps between picked notes. The result is a wall of chiming sound that seems much more complex than what is actually being played. The Vox AC30 provides a bright, chimey foundation, and the delay does the rest.

Brian May's tone on Bohemian Rhapsody is built on a unique combination: his homemade Red Special guitar played with a sixpence coin, a Dallas Rangemaster treble booster slamming the front end of a Vox AC30. The treble booster adds gain and upper-harmonic sparkle, pushing the AC30's Top Boost channel into a rich, creamy overdrive. May's multi-tracked guitar harmonies on this song create an orchestral wall of sound, but each individual guitar part has this distinctive bright, singing character.

The hypnotic riff of Do I Wanna Know? is built on a dark, fuzzy tone with heavy reverb. Turner's Jazzmaster-style guitar through a Vox AC30 with fuzz creates a thick, murky groove that sits low in the mix. The riff uses a slow, deliberate picking style with the notes slightly muted for a percussive, almost drum-like quality.